this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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Afaik the terms are sentience vs sapience, which get constantly confused by everyone including me.
My brain came to a full stop here. One of those "have I ever seen these two in the same room" moments.
For anyone else like me: Sentience is the ability to feel and perceive things. Sentient is the adjective form.
Sapience is the ability to think and acquire wisdom, and the capacity for intelligence. Sapient is the adjective form.
Sentient is often misused for any living creature that thinks, when sapient would be the correct word.
Modern humans are classified as homo sapiens.
I think the confusion is summed up by a quote by a park ranger talking about the design of trash cans in National Parks: (paraphrased) There's a lot of overlap between the smartest bear and the dumbest human.
So if I understand, both are sentient. But they vary widely on sapience.
Sentience is recognizing the trash can is there. Sapience is being able to figure out how to open the lid to access the trash and keeping the wisdom to open the next one easily. Sentience is feeling either frustrated or happy based on the level of success.
Unless I messed it up.
To quote Wikipedia:
So it just distinguishes animals of some neural complexity from primitive organisms. E.g. iirc jellyfish might not feel pain, and single-celled organisms most probably don't.
Regarding sapience, many animals show some degree of intelligence, but we're yet to see them reflecting on their own nature and experience. This I guess is what meant by sapience in the context of man vs other animals.